The Manx fishing industry will not be affected by an EU ban on live shellfish arriving from the UK.

British fishermen have been told they are indefinitely barred from selling live mussels, oysters, clams, cockles and scallops to EU member states unless they have already been treated in purification plants.

Nick Pledger, managing director of Port St Mary based Island Seafare, and Dr David Beard, chief executive of Peel-based Manx Fish Producers’ Organisation, confirmed that island fishing folk are not affected because the island does not export live shellfish to Europe.

The island’s industry is worth about £20 million to the Manx economy.

Dr Beard said the island’s shellfish such as scallops are ‘fresh’ but are not live, when they are exported to Europe.

The island is however allowed to send live lobster because they are crustaceans and not molluscs, explained Dr Beard.

Meanwhile Dr Beard said the island is continuing to send out shipments but he stressed it was a ‘new reality’ for the Manx fishing industry following Brexit and the ongoing Covid situation.

‘We are having to spend far more money on paperwork than we did before.

‘The key is that there is still no hospitality market for our products so it is still going through supermarkets or through other retail and obviously the volume of sales has dropped off mainly because of Covid.’ He pointed out that he had predicted previously in Business News that the weeks after the new year were going to be difficult and he had been proved right.